Verse of the Day — Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Ezekiel was a prophet who spoke to the people of Israel during a bleak stretch of their history, when many of them had given up. They were saying their sins were too heavy and there was simply no way back. In this verse God answers that despair, and he answers it with an oath. He swears by his own life that he does not enjoy watching wrongdoers destroyed. What he genuinely wants is for them to turn away from the harm they are doing and live. He even repeats the invitation, almost pleading: “Turn, turn from your evil ways.”

So the God here is not someone standing over you waiting to catch you out and punish you. He is someone holding a door open. However far down a wrong road you think you have gone, or however far gone someone you love seems to be, this verse says the way back is still there, and that God would rather see a person change than see them wasted. That is worth sitting with the next time you have written yourself off, or written off somebody else. The warning was never the point. The chance to turn around is the point.